Summer 2018: Hopefully Plenty of Sunshine and Language Learning

[Sarafina]

I'm going to now take part in August 6 week challenge. It sounds interesting. I've just created a twitter account for it. Can I register now or do I have to wait until the 1st August?

You can (and are supposed to) register before the 1st August but I don't know how much before. You probably can already as the August scoreboard is already up.

Thank you

[MamaPata]

Big plans! Excited to see how it all goes! We're all cheering you on!

[Sarafina]

Big plans! Excited to see how it all goes! We're all cheering you on!

Thank you so much. I appreciate it so much.

[Sarafina]

My first day of work was alright. The people there were friendly- it's such a shame that the pay is so low and I don't have a French colleague who I banter with in French. I'm looking for second part-time job. Job-hunting can be so demoralising- I have never received a call back when I apply for jobs online and I get so annoyed when I go to a store with my C.V and they say that they 'hold me C.V and call me if there's any vacancies available'. My cousin applied to over 50 stores before she told a call back for an interview. I've been told that I'm too picky about the jobs I want to apply for like I don't want to work with anything that involves food which rules out an entire sector out.

I'm thinking of maybe becoming an Italki tutor or a tutor for Cambly.

Funny enough, the day I started is the day that everyone gets paid. But I need to book Italki lessons now for August and September. I'll probably book about 3 lessons by the end of today. There's a tutor that I've bookmarked that specialises in pronunciation and accent-reduction. There's a tutor that I enjoy my lessons with her and she's amazing but she has so many students so it's hard to find a free time-slot for me. I have to book at least 3-4 weeks in advance.

I haven't had much time to fully implement my summer language learning goals. I have tonight to do as much as possible as I start work tomorrow in the afternoon to the evening.

[Sarafina]

I've registered for the August 6 weeks challenge under Sarafina_learns. I've booked two Italki lessons on Monday as I don't have work then. One of the tutors that I really liked but unfortunately she's only available from September.

[Sarafina]

Why do I have the worst luck in finding committed and consistent language partners?

Sometimes I find it a little unfair that I have to spend at least $30 each week to have regular speaking practice in French with corrections while some people are lucky in finding language exchanges that can do all of this (the only drawback is that you only get 30 minutes of speaking in French instead of full one hour).

Honestly I had incredible Japanese exchange partners who were so helpful. (Why did I do HL French instead of ab initio Japanese). With my current plan for Japanese, I am not planning on doing any serious speaking practice until November. With Japanese, I am going to be super careful about not outputing too early and I am going to dedicate a lot of time in the beginning to pronunciation.

I have two lessons on Monday and one Wednesday and another on Saturday. I had two tutors who were also qualified DALF examiners. One of them is super busy until the end of August/beginning of September.

The other one is really good as well however she's a community tutor which I have no problem with but then she says that she has x years of teaching experience with Alliance Française and that she is/was a DALF examiner but doesn't have a scanned documents showing that professional training/experience. With all of this, she could a professional tutor. She also says that she's a doctor.

At first I was little suspicious as to how a doctor can find the time to be an Italki tutor and get x years of teaching experience with Alliance Française and become a qualified examiner for DALF. However I do believe her as the schedule usually available in the weekends or she just has one hour available for a particular weekday.
There are people that are full time doctors yet still find time to pursue their interests seriously. I've heard of someone who is a doctor and qualified scuba driver which I imagine is time intensive.

She's taught people that have prepared for DALF before and I have seen reviews from a couple of students that prepped for the DALF C1 with her. I guess I can ask her how many students that she helped with for the C1 that have passed.

I'm trying to think of why someone would chose to be a community tutor if they can be a professional tutor- maybe Italki takes more of their money or something or she doesn't want the title of being a professional tutor or it's too much hassle scanning all the documents.

She's a great teacher and she's very attentive and helpful and she always goes above and beyond on helping me with my French. I don't want to accidentally offend her.

[garyb]

My experience, and that of several other forum members, is that finding a reliable French exchange partner can be like looking for hen's teeth. You're not alone! I've had a few over the years, so it's certainly possible, but generally they've not lasted more than a few weeks or months.

[Sarafina]

My experience, and that of several other forum members, is that finding a reliable French exchange partner can be like looking for hen's teeth. You're not alone! I've had a few over the years, so it's certainly possible, but generally they've not lasted more than a few weeks or months.

There's a couple that I've really clicked and we've been language exchange partners for over a year but this year they have been so so busy for perfectly valid reasons. I just found a French exchange partner who I really clicked with and he was been pretty consistent but he is now on holiday for who knows how long. It seems nearly impossible to find French people who are free to talk 1-2 a week consistently. It's fine to know that I'm not alone.

[Sarafina]

I have decided to have a exercise book where I write down all the corrections I get on Italki so I can review it. I need to review the corrections I get. I wonder if it's worth correcting a correct Anki deck for it in addition.

I had a great lesson- I asked about her previous students who have passed the DALF C1. She said that recently one of her students passed the DALF C1. In her reviews, there's a student who thanked her for helping him pass the DALF C1 and he says that he got good grades that exceeded what he expected. He's done over 40 lessons with her. I'm guessing that the student that she was talking about. She's helped 2 people pass the B2. She's great teacher and I trust her. During our lessons, we are going to be working towards getting to a C1 level with her.

I'm having a trial lesson with a French Canadian guy who really believes in tailoring the lessons to the needs and interests of the learner. I'm going to be implementing one of the listening strategies inspired by a post by iguanamon.

So for one lesson/session, I would like to focus on TV series, I was thinking about perhaps I would write down all the unknown words and bits of dialogue that I missed with the correct timestamps and I can go through him and later I can give a review of what happened in each episode and discuss it with him so that way I'm not just watching TV mindlessly and I'm basically practising all four skills

Then for another lesson each week I would like to use the various topics/issues introduced in FranceCulture's Entendez-vous l'éco/FrenchSpin/7jours as a prompt for a discussion/debate.

Then I have another teacher that specialises in accent and pronunciation as he has worked with actors on dictation, accent and pronunciation.

But at this rate, I am going to to end up paying for 5-6 lessons each week. Last week, I only worked 8 hours for the week then this week I'm only working 8 hours however next week it's going to increase to 16 hours. Because I am not till-trained or trained to do ear-piercing, I can only working 8-20 hours each week. The ear-piercing training can take up a month. I need to find another job as this job isn't enough to pay for Italki lessons and save up for uni. I am going to try my luck in Central London- fingers crossed.

I don't know what will happen to my Italki lessons when I start uni. Considering that I'm studying French as part of my degree, it seems weird to be paying for additional Italki lessons. Apparently we get 3 hours of oral classes each week with a native but I'm not sure if how individual time I would get out of those oral classes whether it's a group or individual thing. If I'm lucky, and I have a French-speaking friend who doesn't mind doing what the second tutor will be going regarding the whole TV series/FranceCulture/FrenchSpin/7jours thing. I still want to keep the tutor I just had for C1 preparation and the third Italki tutor for pronunciation/accent work.

[garyb]

There's a couple that I've really clicked and we've been language exchange partners for over a year but this year they have been so so busy for perfectly valid reasons. I just found a French exchange partner who I really clicked with and he was been pretty consistent but he is now on holiday for who knows how long. It seems nearly impossible to find French people who are free to talk 1-2 a week consistently. It's fine to know that I'm not alone.

Sounds like you're doing pretty well! In my experience, most people just don't have time for a language exchange once or more per week over the long term, and that's normal. It's a big commitment to fit in alongside work, studies, and the rest of life. I certainly struggle to do more than one lesson or exchange per week. Even if I have the time, I might not be sure when in the week I'll have that time, or it might not suit the other party.

One conversation every 2 or 3 weeks, with perhaps some text chats in between, is a realistic expectation for a successful exchange in my opinion. In the best ones I've had, we've usually had a rough plan like "Tuesday evenings, if both of us are free". Occasionally you do find someone who's willing to do them more frequently, but it's usually a temporary phase like preparation for an exam or just a short-lived burst of enthusiasm.